SDDDC News

SDDDC News in November

【SDDDC NEWS】Leading
the partnership framework of industry, university and research institutes in to
a golden triangle model, and promote faster development China’s dairy industry

----
An interview with Kees de Koning, Dutch projects contact person for SDDDC

The report of the Nineteenth Party
Congress indicate that in regards to implementing innovation-driven development
strategies, deepening the industry-university-research partnership is a
significant measure for development through the industrial chain and promoting
innovation. On the basis of the collaboration of industry-university-research
andforming a golden triangle model in Dutch dairy, SDDDC has
for four years developed and served as the standard bearer for Sino-Dutch dairy
industry-university-research collaboration.

In November 2013, SDDDC was set
up by China Agriculture University, Wageningen University and Research Center (referred
to as WUR) and Royal FrieslandCampina. As one of founders, WUR has been rated
by USnews as the best university for agricultural sciences all over the world,
and played a huge role in establishing SDDDC as a leader in the fields of
scientific research, teacher training, and talent exchange, among others.

Scientific
research should be “in China and for China”

As an international first-class
institution for higher education, WUR has a strong focus on both fundamental
and applied scientific research and education, which has been named as “Science
for impact”. WUR has maintained a good partnership with enterprises and their
research projects enables WUR to work with these partners directly and in doing
so, scientific achievements that have practical applications are realized. The
establishment of SDDDC has unified and provided a systematic framework for
scientific innovation; WUR’s capabilities in these fields have contributed to
building a closer collaboration between enterprises, governments, and science
organizations.

“China’s dairy market is facing
major challenges. China is experiencing rapidly growing demand for dairy
products but has limited availability of arable land for crop production. At
the same time, the focus of the dairy sector is shifting from quantity
expansion to quality improvement and profitability increase. That is why it is key
to improve milk yield & milk quality and the farming economy while in the
same time environmental impact has to be reduced, to improve sustainability
based on circular farming.” As the researcher in WUR and Dutch projects contact
person of SDDDC said in the interview, “SDDDC is dedicated to defining and
exploring scientific topics and addressing real challenges of China’s dairy
industry. I am sure that combining the quality resources of China and The
Netherlands will enable the advancement of the China’s dairy. ”

By November, WUR and China
Agriculture University have completed a total of 32 scientific topics through
SDDDC. It was introduced by Kees that these topics will undergo comprehensive
evaluation from the research group in a closed meeting at the end of each year.
This research group has consisted of principal investigators drawn from
Sina-Dutch academic experts. Through evaluation they will determine whether
ongoing topics can be concluded as well as define the direction for research in
next year. It is clear to see that the whole evaluation process is extremely
rigorous.

Expand SDDDC activities to get more impact

WUR is also working with other
universities in China. “SDDDC is a very special partnership as it includes two
universities,” Kees said, “through the Dutch golden triangle model, we hope to
promote the entire industry chain “from grass to glass”, and develop the
Chinese dairy industry in many specific areas, including food safety, product
quality and production efficiency, among others.”

As an inclusive, open,
cooperative and shared platform, SDDDC has attracted partners for important
links of the dairy industry chain, such as dairy breeding, feed processing,
dairy farming, dairy processing, dairy financial support, dairy technology
innovation, etc. It is these partnerships that have successfully connected
Sino-Dutch government resources, two top institutions and excellent enterprise resources
in a Golden Triangle model.

In scientific research, SDDDC
imports and translates leading professional books from Dutch to Chinese, and
builds academic bridges for Sino-Dutch industry figures to learn and
communicate. The annual report on the Chinese dairy industry gained a lot of
attention in China. Meanwhile, much expertise has been developed in China’s
dairy industry through this integration of resources from China and The
Netherlands.

SDDDC arranged for Chinese and
Dutch experts to hold specialist courses annually, such as the Dairy Academy
Training Course for frontline workers in farms, and a Master Training Course
for technical services specialists and executive groups. So far nearly 400
specialists of cattle breeding and farm management have been trained, and over
one-fourth of them obtained a master certificate. In the aspect of talent
training, SDDDC has fully sponsored seven Chinese masters in the dairy industry
pursue four-year PhDs in WUR, and supports several young teachers and scholars
from China and The Netherlands for academic visits.

Finally, Kees mentioned that
SDDDC has indeed achieved high recognition from the Chinese dairy industry, but
they still need to strengthen and expand the partnerships to benefit the
Chinese dairy industry and all SDDDC partners.The SDDDC partnership is open to
all partners who support SDDDC’s objectives.